


our best days are yet unknown

by outtacapecod



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Everyone Is Alive, F/M, M/M, carrie isn't the best but she's not the worst, this show has consumed my life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:20:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27183049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/outtacapecod/pseuds/outtacapecod
Summary: One year can change everything.Or, the gang meets in university.
Relationships: Alex/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Julie Molina/Luke Patterson, Nick/Carrie Wilson
Comments: 14
Kudos: 180





	1. august

** August **

“Just one year” his mom had begged, her hands clenched tightly around his, her eyes shining with unshed tears. His dad stood behind her with a hand placed gently on her shoulder. He was smiling tightly as if to say, ‘just humor her, son. Just do this one thing right.’

“Okay,” Luke had found himself saying, unable to look at his parent’s hopeful faces any longer while knowing that he was inevitably going to break their hearts. “One year.”

“Just one year.” His father had had threatened, looking every bit like the principal he was with his finger wagging in the air. His mother stood off to the side with her eyes cast downward toward the floor. She was slightly trembling. “You can go off to the city for one year and have your fun, but I expect you back here after that. Do you understand me?”

“I understand.” Alex had said, a small smile breaking across his face despite his father’s threats of a very bleak future and the sight of his mother, who seemed to shrink further inside herself every day. “Just one year.”

“Just one year, baby, that’s all.” His mom had pleaded, pausing yet another bickering match- this time is was over who got the dusty box of antique spoons found in the attic that neither her nor his father really cared about. “With all the changes going on here and your father setting off to god knows where… well, I could just really use some time to myself right now. Let’s just see how this year goes first, okay?”

Reggie found himself nodding and clearing his throat through the feeling of watching his whole life being dismantled right before his eyes. “Right. Yeah. A year.”

“Just one year, mija.” Her dad had stood behind her, his large hands placed firmly but reassuringly on her shoulders. Together they gazed into the mirror, seeing the reflection of her sad face and the suitcases piled up next to her bedroom door. “Your tia thinks getting out of the house and being in a new environment might help. Plus, you’ll only be across the city. Your mom and I met in college, remember? She would love that you’re going to have the ‘university experience’. It’s going to be great, honey, I promise.”

Julie took a deep breath and nodded at her father’s reflection in the mirror. “Okay. Just one year.”


	2. september

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone who read and engaged with the last chapter! I'm excited to get the ball rolling on this.

** September **

The first thing that Julie sees as she walks into her new dorm room is the sound equipment strewn across the living area. It’s otherwise a bleak sight; white cinderblock walls, light green linoleum flooring that is practically begging for an area rug, two beige couches pushed up against either wall, and a coffee table that looks as if someone had enjoyed too many games of quarters. There’s a small kitchenette off to one side, and three other doors for what she assumes are the two bedrooms and the bathroom. All in all, it would be wholly unimpressive if not for the very expensive tech that had been placed haphazardly around the room like it didn’t cost a thing. 

She pauses briefly by the door and wishes she had accepted her father’s pleas to let him drive her, half because she was suddenly really nervous and half because then she could have brought her own keyboard, which wouldn’t fit in the trunk of the cab. She knew it was necessary to turn down his offer, even when his and her brother Carlos’ faces dropped with barely concealed disappointment. If they had been standing there with her, she would never have been able to make herself take the initial step into the room.

“Um, excuse me? Are you just going to stand there all day?” A shrill and demanding voice makes Julie jump where she is still hovering in the doorway. She turns to see a young woman with long, shiny, dirty blonde hair who stands with a hand on her hip and her lips pursed in irritation.

“Oh, uh-sorry.” Julie says, quickly stepping aside. “I’m Julie.”

“Carrie.” The girl says shortly, brushing by her. “I’m in a room with Kayla, so you’re in the other one. I don’t think your roommate got here yet.” Carrie turns back around, standing in the middle of the room and staring at Julie who still stands frozen in the doorway. “Don’t touch my stuff and don’t steal my spotlight. Understand?”

Julie stares at her incredulously. _This girl was so full of it._ “Uh yeah, Carrie, whatever.”

Seemingly satisfied, Carrie turns on her heel and marches into an open doorway. A second later, shrieks of female laughter reach Julie’s ears from where she stands alone. _Thank god I’m only sharing a dorm and not a room with her,_ Julie thought. _Imagine waking up to_ that _attitude every day._

Finally pulling her luggage into the dorm, Julie feels a pang in her chest and an overwhelming wave of loneliness rush over her as she looks at the door to Carrie and Kayla’s room, now closed, and to the open one of her own room. She wonders who her roommate will be. Julie has never shared a room before and has only shared common spaces with people she knows like the back of her hand. Sure, her little brother could get annoying sometimes, but she always felt loved and safe at home.

She feels scared shitless now.

The inside of her actual room is about as underwhelming as the common area- she doesn’t even want to see the bathroom, and a part of her pettily thinks that Carrie probably has laid claim to any cabinet space by now. Her dorm room, while the same ugly flooring and cold walls as the common area, is blessedly empty when she walks in. She sits down on the bare mattress closest to the door and wraps her arms around her torso like she could physical keep herself from falling apart. _I will not cry. I will not cry. I_ will not _cry._ The mantra feels like a battle she is losing, so she quickly stands back up and pulls one of her suitcases onto the bare mattress. Unpacking will help- nesting, she thinks. _That’s a thing._

Despite the fact that they are only a twenty-minute drive across the city, she pins a photo of her father and Carlos on the corkboard that hangs above the desk directly across from the bed she has claimed. In Los Angeles rush hour, those twenty minutes could easily be an hour or more, she reasons. There’s plenty of reason to miss them. She includes a picture of her mom, who she has more than enough reason to miss; her mom’s death the year prior had torn apart her life. Julie used to have music, friends, and a sense of purpose. That was all gone now, buried six feet under with her mother. The final picture she hangs is one of the four of them taken on a family vacation after her mother had been diagnosed. Her parents hadn’t told Carlos and her until they had gotten back. It had felt like betrayal at the time, but the smile on her face was genuine and she was thankful for that memory now.

The corkboard still feels empty after those three pictures, so she pins a few ticket stubs from her favourite concerts. Satisfied, Julie places her brand new and very expensive textbooks on her desk, along with her funky new purple lamp that she had gotten on the (also very expensive) Target trip her dad had taken her on in order to get her excited about living in a dorm. She brushes a layer of dust off the nightstand beside her bed and places a shadowbox on it which holds a dried dahlia, her mother’s favourite flower- and Julie’s, by association. She remembers singing with her mother at Eats and Beats, a local café that held an open mic night every month. Her father and Carlos had presented them with bunches of dahlias after they stepped off stage. She took a flower from that bouquet to try and hold on to the exhilarating feeling of singing on stage with someone you loved and having your family cheer you on from the crowd- it’s the best feeling Julie has ever felt, and the tears start coming when she realizes she will never feel that ever again.

“Hey, heyyyy- woah!” The first thing Julie notices about the girl who enters the room is that she has on a truly gigantic hat. Like, truly gigantic. But somehow, this girl rocks it. She’s Black with her hair done in dual braids. Everything about this girl is loud from her sparkly sneakers to her cheetah print skirt. Julie wonders if they are roughly the same size. “Are you okay?”

“Oh- oh my god,” Julie says, frantically wiping her eyes. “This is so not how I wanted to meet my roommate.” She stands up and holds out her hand, trying to salvage her first impression so she doesn’t come off like a weepy loser. “I’m Julie.”

“Flynn!” Her new roommate says brightly. “And no worries, girl. I cry like ten times a day.” Flynn drops her bags on the floor with a flourish and sighs. “That’s just trip one.” Then, eyeing Julie’s two suitcases, narrows her eyes. “Girl, is that all you brought?”

Julie laughs lightly and shakes her head. “I live just on the other side of the city. I figured I’d pack light for the first little bit; I’m not a great unpacker.” 

Flynn goes to sit on the other mattress and Julie moves so they are facing each other, knees almost touching in the small space between the two beds. “Lucky.” Flynn groans. “I live just across the country, so I had to bring like my entire life with me. The rest of my stuff is on the sidewalk downstairs; I’m going to try bribing some random guys to help me lug it the rest of the way.”

“Where are you from?” Julie asked curiously, her new roommate’s energy already making her feel better.

“Middle of fucking nowhere, that’s where.” At Julie’s raised eyebrows, Flynn sighed. “Rural Maryland. Like, literally the middle of nowhere.”

“You didn’t want to stay out East?”

Flynn smiles and it lights up her whole face. “I considered New York but I took a Buzzfeed quiz that told you what coast you’re most like based on your food preferences, and I got West.”

Julie laughs. “Excellent logic.”

Flynn seems to study her for a moment. “How’s your upper body strength?”

“Minimal to non-existent.” Julie answers, hoping that Flynn isn’t the athletic roommate who is going to want an early morning gym-buddy.

“Cool. Can you help me bring the rest of my bags upstairs?”

Luke’s dormmates are _awesome._ That roommate matching quiz that he half-heartedly completed back in the summer really paid off, because all three of the guys living in his two -bedroom dorm are super into music. There’s Alex, who he’s sharing a room with, who absolutely _fucking kills_ on the drums, a fact that he coerced out of him after Luke had watched the other boy’s eyes light up at the sight of Luke’s guitar. Then there’s Reggie and Nick, who are sharing the other room. Reggie immediately showed him videos from his high school talent shows of him shredding the bass. Nick, who is at UCLA on a lacrosse scholarship, surprised them all with his own guitar skills. He’s not as good as Luke, but really, few people are. Luke’s talent came from an intense passion, a burning determination, and a laser focus that meant he didn’t really have a life outside of music. His friends got bored when he didn’t want to do anything else but jam, and girls got mad when he put open mic nights before dates or accidently stood them up when inspiration struck.

He could see himself being friends with these guys, though. Within the first hour of meeting each other they had stitches in their sides from laughter as they tried to recreate the lift from _Dirty Dancing._ They were _vibing,_ Luke thought as he watched Reggie land hard on Nick and elbow him in the stomach, causing Alex to spit out the lukewarm beer that they had immediately bribed the residence assistant to buy them.

Luke leaves the common area, laughing, and walks into the room that he and Alex shared. Alex had unpacked quickly and efficiently; his sheets were tucked neatly underneath his mattress, his multiple pink sweaters hung neatly in the wardrobe. A picture of a young-looking woman with a baby boy on her hip, both smiling widely at the camera, was in a frame on his desk. Luke’s side of the room is a different story. His guitar stands proudly on its stand in the corner of his room, and clothes are strewn around the floor by his bed from when he ruffled through his duffle bag trying to find the twenty-dollar bill he knew he had so he could pitch in for the beer. He _had_ made his bed… sort of. The sheets are on top of his bed with three of the four corners staying perfectly in place. He had forgotten to bring a pillow, so that kind of sucked, but he has his childhood teddy bear who is fluffy enough to do the trick and who he knows Alex will not make fun of him for.

The bulletin board over his desk is directly across from his bed and thus pretty much directly in his line of sight no matter where he was in the room. So Luke had filled it with concert ticket stubs and coasters he’d collected from the pubs and cafes he had played in. His desk was a scattered mess of every CD he owned- he couldn’t leave any behind. He hadn’t bothered to buy his textbooks yet, so there is plenty of room on the desk’s shelf. He could organize them later. Alex’s eyes had widened with horror as he watched Luke “unpack” and Luke finds himself smirking now, thinking about it. He flips open his cellphone (“that’s a cellphone?” Reggie had exclaimed disbelievingly when he first saw it. “My baby sister has a better phone than that.”) and takes a deep breath as he dials his parent’s phone number. He promised he would check in with them when he got settled.

“Sweetie?” His mom’s voice filled his ears. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Luke says, trying not to sound annoyed. He loves his mom, really, he does. They had just had so many fights over the past several years that sometimes the sound of her voice is all it takes for Luke to go automatically into defence mode. “Yeah, just, you told me to call- y’ know, when I settled in.”

He can hear smile through the phone and it unclenches a knot inside him. “What are your roommates like?”

“Oh mom,” He flops down onto the bed and kicks his feet in the air like a child. “they are so awesome. Alex is so nice and Reggie is hilarious and Nick seems like a really cool guy.” Luke’s words get faster as he goes; he’s excited to actually get to talk to his mom about his life.

His mom’s voice is excited, too. “That’s so great, sweetie.”

“Yeah and they are super into music too, like, we even talked about starting a band…but I guess we’d need a rehearsal space, and some drums, and a better amp, mine’s shit…” Luke trails off at his mother’s silence. “Mom?”

He can hear her take a deep breath. “Luke, I don’t want to fight tonight. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay? I love you.” She doesn’t wait for him to answer before she ends the call.

Luke curls into himself on his thin mattress, wondering when it was that his happiness became so painful for his mother to bear.

It’s about three weeks later, nearing the end of his first month of university, that Alex first meets Julie Molina. Luke, Reggie and Alex all have the same introductory economics class which takes place in a big lecture hall that is filled to the brim with first year students, at least half of who do not want to be there. The three of them sit in a row as far back as they could get considering they showed up twenty minutes late- ironically, you have to arrive early to get the slacker seats. Alex is half-heartedly paying attention when he overhears part of Luke and Reggie’s whispered conversation.

“No.” Alex says, not taking his eyes off the professor. “Sunset Curve is a really stupid name.”

He doesn’t look to his right but he can hear the affronted gasps coming from his friends.

Luke leans over Reggie, causing the other boy to grumble, and places a hand on Alex’s shoulder. “I am _this_ close to kicking you out of the band.”

Alex rolls his eyes. “You need me. No one else can keep up with your adlibs.”

Luke smirks. “We don’t need drums, anyway. The audience stomping their feet and clapping would have the same effect.”

It’s Alex’s turn to gasp. “Fuck you, Patterson—” He stops short when he realizes that Luke’s attention has been diverted elsewhere, though he is still half sprawled across Reggie. Luke is staring intently over the shoulder of a girl sitting in front of them. She has Brown skin and an abundance of curls that Luke seems two seconds from brushing out of his way as he leans precariously over her head.

“Dude!” Alex hisses, slightly alarmed. “What are you doing?”

Reggie, for his part, is used to his friend’s antics and doesn’t say a word despite the fact that Luke remains half in his lap.

“She’s writing- they look like song lyrics- they are _really_ —”

The girl whips her head around before Luke can finish his sentence and Luke quickly leans back into his own seat, trying and failing to look innocent. She’s pretty, Alex thinks, but her face is twisted in anger and she is glaring furiously at Luke.

“What is wrong with you?” She asks Luke, which, fair, really.

“I’m sorry about him.” Alex whispers. “He doesn’t have basic manners.”

“Yeah,” Reggie agrees. “I’m Reggie, by the way.”

The girl stares at Reggie like he has three heads. Which again, fair. “What do you want?” She asks, directing her question at Luke, who has a look on his face like a puppy that just got adopted from a kill shelter.

“Are those song lyrics? You’re really talented.”

“You were reading my notebook?” The girl asks, her whisper rising in volume, enough that they were now drawing the attention of other students around them. “Boundaries!”

Luke doesn’t even have the decency to look ashamed. He shrugs. “What’s your name?”

The girl hesitates. She still looks angry, but Luke can see her thawing the longer she looks at Luke. It’s a special skill that boy has, and unfortunately, no one is immune. “Julie. Molina.”

“I’m Alex.” Alex smiles at her, “Sorry again. We’ll behave ourselves.”

“No promises.” Luke smiles. “Nice to meet you, Julie. I’m---”

“Is there a problem back there?” The professor’s voice booms suddenly, and Alex realizes that the four of them had been talking when the rest of the class has been deadly silent. He flushes red and slinks lower in his seat, but of course Luke has no shame and Reggie just smiles cheerfully and waves.

The rest of the class goes by so slowly that it sends Alex into an existential crisis about the meaning of time, but what he doesn’t realize is that the second he leaves that lecture hall, Alex’s every waking moment will be consumed by discussions of Julie Molina just because he is (un)fortunate enough to be Luke Patterson’s roommate. 


End file.
